


Nights Like These

by Stennerd



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Caring TK Strand, Domestic Fluff, Established Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Fluff, Good Significant Other TK Strand, Love, M/M, Slice of Life, Soft Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, they are soft for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29766432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stennerd/pseuds/Stennerd
Summary: Carlos has had a long week of long shifts, leaving him exhausted, but at least he has TK to come home to.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 12
Kudos: 183





	Nights Like These

It’s not often that TK gets home before him, but it happens from time to time and it makes Carlos warm inside with the sense of how much a home it feels like when he is. Before TK it hadn’t ever gotten to that point in any of his previous relationships, and now he couldn’t imagine anything better.

On this night in particular, however, he couldn’t enjoy it nearly as much as he wanted to, arriving much later than he was mean to. Stepping inside he could smell the dissipating smell of what he knows to be lemon chicken as he toes off his shoes at the door.

Dropping his keys on the coffee table, he lets out what he knows to be an overly dramatic groan in an attempt to vent his exhaustion through sound alone and collapses on the sofa, slinging an arm over his eyes as he lies across it.

The exhaustion being due to the fact there were two people out sick and another was on paternity leave, leaving him and some others stepping in to pick up the extra shifts.

Unperturbed by the lack of greeting, TK questions from the kitchen sink with an air of understanding, “Bad day?”

“ _Long_ day.” He supplies with a sigh; bone-weary from his shift.

He listens for a response, not bothering to move his arm from his eyes, but only hears a hum from TK as the sound of clattering of dishes in the sink ceased before the sound of the fridge being opened.

“Hungry? There’s dinner in the fridge with your name on it,” called TK lightly.

Even though he hadn’t had much much to eat throughout the day since having a wrap for lunch some 10 hours earlier, Carlos’s stomach didn’t even grumble at the mention of food.

“As much as I would love to eat what you’ve cooked, I think I’m past hungry at this point.” He responds with a grimace, knowing that he was looking forward to it earlier in the day and hating that he couldn’t summon the energy to eat it knowing that TK had as much of a long shift as he had and still cooked for them despite it. 

He gets a sound of understanding from TK but no further commentary, leaving him to almost fall into a slumber listening to the muted sounds coming from the direction of the kitchen before he registers the kitchen noises had stopped and the quiet padding of footsteps grew closer. They come to a stop near his head and he hears the quiet slosh of liquid in a bottle and the rustling of clothes before a chilled ceramic bowl is placed on his stomach.

Peering out from beneath the crook of his elbow, he cranes his neck to look down at the bowl and quirks his eyebrow when he finds it to be filled with frosty, frozen blueberries, one of his favourite fruits. One that he converted TK to liking and now they buy multiple punnets at a time, freezing half of the fresh fruit for snacking purposes on hot days like today.

TK propped his chin on his hand and elbow on his knee from his position squatting next to Carlos’s head as he smirked down at him fondly and drops his free hand to brush away the loose curls on his forehead, lightly grazing the skin above his eyebrow with his thumb.

“You still need to eat something.” TK proffered gently before he could think to ask the question.

Carlos drops his arm completely when he turns his head to the side to properly look over to the crouched form of TK with an appreciative smile, “Thank you.”

From his position, TK twists and picks up the remote from the coffee table and turns on the TV, switching it over to Netflix before placing it in Carlos’s hand and points out that there is a water bottle on the floor beside him. Carlos watches as he stands up and moves back to the kitchen sink and finishes washing what was left.

As he scrolls through the shows trying to find something easy to watch that didn’t require much attention, Carlos starts to graze on the frozen blueberries and had just settled on Nailed It! when TK re-joins him, smelling faintly of the new citrus dish soap they had just bought.

Carlos lifts his head with mild curiosity as TK lifts his lower legs and takes a seat on the couch beneath them, settling them atop his thighs.

“TK, it's late. You should go to bed,” he says after looking at the clock and seeing it coming up on midnight, knowing that after the day he’s had it was going to take a good long while for him to decompress enough to consider going to bed himself.

To his surprise, TK just shrugs, unconcerned, and pushes up his pant legs to his knees before starting to gently knead his calves instead, “I’m not tired.”

“Ty, I know for a fact that you’ve been on your feet for the better part of 12 hours,” presses Carlos, recalling all the small complaints he got from his boyfriend in his texts about the non-stop calls he had. He didn’t want him to stay up just for his sake.

“I had a nap before you got home and I’m off shift tomorrow, Carlos, I’m fine… just let me do this,” TK says gently but firmly leaving no room for discussion despite the fact that he was stifling a yawn.

Carlos just shakes his head fondly and drops his head back onto the pillow and tunes back into the show as he resumes snacking, rolling onto his side so he wouldn’t get a kink in his neck from looking sideways.

He finds himself relaxing more quickly than he expected to as he sunk more heavily into the upholstery of the couch under TK’s steady ministrations and by the time, the end of the second episode credits started rolling, Carlos could barely keep his eyes open. The continuous massage that TK had been giving his legs and feet lulling him into a haze of comfort.

He almost doesn’t register when TK reached over to claim the remote and stops the show before it auto-plays the next episode and turned it off. He does however groan in complaint when TK stops massaging his legs and eases out from beneath them and moves the now empty bowl and water bottle to the kitchen before shutting off the lights.

When he returns, TK tugs at his arms and pulls him up, “I know you won’t be happy in the morning if I leave you to sleep on the couch, so, come on, the bed is waiting for us.”

He lets TK manoeuvre him up the stairs, keeping a supportive hand across his back to be sure he makes it to the top safely and they move to the bedroom. He doesn’t get far, falling bonelessly on his belly onto the made covers, while the idea of brushing his teeth to rid himself of the tiny bits of blueberry stuck in his molars falls away to become a thing to do in the morning because there was no way he was moving now from the bliss of finally being in bed.

TK does, however, brush his teeth, and returns a few minutes later to start pulling the bedsheets from beneath the dead weight of his body. He helps with little effort, shifting enough that eventually it is laid over the top of him with TK slotting himself on his side next to him, head resting against the tip of his shoulder and an arm slung loosely across his back coupled with a leg slung over his thigh, effectively cocooning him in love and comfort without it needing to be said.

That’s the last thing he remembers before he falls asleep. It may have been a long day, but he knows, schedules permitting, he’ll have nights like these where TK is there to give him what he needs even if he doesn’t know he needs it. And that something that he’ll always be grateful for.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading xx  
> Comments and kudos are very much appreciated 💖  
> You can find me on Tumblr: [@beamingbuckley](https://beamingbuckley.tumblr.com/)


End file.
